From Russian With Jazz

Jazz behind the Iron Curtain....

And yet, who knows very much of what jazz is really about? Or how shall we ever know until we are willing to confront anything and everything which it sweeps across our path?

-Ralph Ellison

I first became aware of Leo Records through Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton’s pianist during his Quartet’s legendary 1985 England tour, well documented by Graham Lock in his book Forces in Nature, released by Quartet Books in 1988.

The first time I saw Marilyn Crispell was with the Reggie Workman Ensemble at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz on March 30, 1989. I brought with me to the show their album Synthesis, a 1986 Leo Records release, which they all signed for me:

That concert remains one of the most memorable I have ever attended. It marked the beginning of my journey into the deeper waters of that Big River called Jazz. In particular, I was impressed with Crispell and wanted to find more of her Leo Records albums: her debut solo album, LR 118, Rhythms Hung in Undrawn Sky (1983); and LR 126, And Your Ivory Voice Sings (1985). Unfortunately, Leo Records were impossible to find in the U.S. at that time.

So in April 1990, I wrote to Leo Records in England asking for their catalog and where I might find their records in the U.S. Much to my surprise, I got this letter back from Leo Feigin, Leo Records’ “Producer, driver, accountant, message boy, etc.”:

It was his handwritten invitation at the bottom of the letter that piqued my interest in “THE GANELIN TRIO. ” I would later learn that the Ganelin Trio was the first jazz band the Politburo allowed to tour outside the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - the USSR.

This letter and subsequent correspondence with Feigin helped me understand Leo Records’ incredible story.

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In the early 1920s, when Valentin Parnakh, one of the leaders of the European and Russian art avant-garde, heard an American jazz band in Paris, he was stunned. He purchased a set of instruments, returned to Moscow, and founded the Valentin Parnakh Jazz Band, which performed its first concert at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow on October 1, 1922.

From the 1930s until the 1960s, the Soviet government only patronized jazz, calling it an example of bourgeois culture. However, Eastern European people identified this music as a cry for freedom. In a 1982 interview with The Wire magazine, Feigin explained, “People in the oppressed countries of Eastern Europe identify jazz music with freedom. In an oppressed society where you can’t express your ideas freely - where all basic human rights are denied to you - the language of music, especially improvised, becomes symbolic of freedom.”

By the late 1970s, Feigin realized that a Soviet underground was developing into a unique music scene that was part of Russia's powerful tradition of musical innovation. In this light, he felt the Ganelin Trio was a continuation of the great Russian artists Scriabin, Diaghilev, and Stravinsky.

However, why it took a man with no musical training or background to unlock the doors to the West to jazz music behind the Iron Curtain will remain forever an enigma.

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Leo Feigin was born in 1938 in St. Petersburg. He graduated in 1959 from the Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education in Leningrad, earned a master of sports in high jump in 1960, and became a professional high jumper.

In 1973, he left the USSR for Israel. He recalls, “With the help of the KGB. It was probably the most important thing in my life. For the KGB, I was considered to be a dissident - I had a minder in Leningrad. At the last meeting, he said, ‘Listen, if you want to leave Russia, there will be no obstacles. But if you prefer to stay, our meeting will be very different.” You will have to go in the opposite direction: to Siberia.’ He was very polite.”

Soon after arriving in Israel, a friend gave him a page from an Israeli newspaper, and there was a small advertisement: The Russian Service of the BBC needs employees. So he wrote them a letter and recalls, “…about three months later, they offered me a job as a presenter and translator. I knew nothing about England. I was completely American-oriented.”

A strange incident led to an opportunity to begin a radio show called Jazz Programme. Under the moniker Aleksei Leonidov, the show ran for 26 years until he retired. He recalls, “…every day was chaos. By 10 pm, there are six or eight people there, and you have to cover the network. So, almost every day, there were gaps that someone needed to fill. One day I went to a concert - it was Weather Report - and I bought an LP. The next day, I went to the BBC with the LP to listen to it on good equipment. During the program, there was a gap of 18 minutes. So I ran down to the studio and two minutes later I was on the air. So this was the beginning of Jazz Programme….”

In the Cold War era, his BBC broadcasts were severely jammed. Despite this, he tried to bring to listeners in the Soviet Union music and information they were deprived of, including works of writers and dissidents who could not publish their work at home, such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Jamming finally stopped in the late 1980s, as perestroika took hold. It was in this spirit that, in 1979, Feigin started his record label, Leo Records.

In his 1985 book, Russian Jazz, New Identity, Feigin wrote: “The full story of Leo records will never be told, especially its cloak-and-dagger activity. Those in the “know” will have to take to the grave certain secrets and names for fear that some people, who are still living in the Soviet Union, might be punished or persecuted for their courageous actions in preserving and smuggling out to the West works of art which would otherwise have been inevitably lost.” And the incredible story behind Leo Records’ first Ganelin Trio album bears this out.

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In 1978, a tape of The Ganelin Trio was smuggled out of the USSR and sent to Feigin with a note simply saying: “Phenomenal.” He recalls, “I put the tape on the machine, and I couldn’t believe my ears. At the same time, you hear three saxophones, you hear a dulcimer, you hear the electric cello or something. You had this incredible amount of sound that all made sense.”

This tape became Leo Records LR 102, Live in East Germany, recorded by The Ganelin Trio on April 22, 1979, and released by Feigin in 1980:

Here is that recording:

From the very beginning, Feigin worried about releasing the tape. He recalls, “Do I have the moral right to release their tape? On the other hand, it was obvious to me that the first release of tapes from the USSR in the West would be a tremendous morale boost for the musicians in the Soviet Union.” From the first time he heard Live In East Germany, he realized he was holding a masterpiece that would make jazz history. Therefore, he wondered if he had the right not to release it.

He added this note to the back of the albums to protect the musicians on those early Leo releases: “Musicians do not bear any responsibility for publishing these tapes.”

After Live in East Germany’s release, soviet musicians realized they had “Our man in England.” Many more tapes, mostly live recordings, were then smuggled out of the country and found their way to Feigin - it became a secret, covert operation.

The Soviet-state-owned Melodiya label was not really interested in new music; however, before Leo Records LPs were released in the West, Melodiya had been releasing in the East a few token new music albums each year - The Ganelin Trio was their group of choice.

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In 1968, Vyacheslav Ganelin formed a trio with percussionist Vladimir Tarasov and saxophonist Vladimir Rezitsky. In 1971, Rezitsky left the trio and was replaced by Vladimir Chekasin. This trio became known as The Ganelin Trio, which remained together until they disbanded in 1987.

In 1976, the trio recorded their first album, Con Anima. It was released in 1977 on the Melodiya label:

Here is the entire album:

In 1978, the Ganelin trio recorded their second album, Concerto Grosso. It was released in 1980 on the Melodiya label - the same year as Leo Records’ Live In East Germany:

Here is the entire album:

It is interesting to compare these two Melodiya studio releases with Leo Records’ Live In East Germany. I find the earlier studio albums much more aligned with the Arts Ensemble of Chicago than traditional free jazz associated with Ornette Coleman. Even in live recordings, The Ganelin Trio maintains a caliber of musicianship and exemplary execution that is astounding. It’s important to point out that all were trained in Russia by the top music professors, and none were full-time musicians. They all had professional careers outside the trio. For example, Ganelin studied at the Vilnius Conservatory in Lithuania, where he later taught composition. He was also the music director for the Vilnius Russian Drama Theatre.

In Moscow in March 1978, the trio recorded a live recording, Strictly For My Friends, covertly released by Leo Records in 1984.

This album finds The Ganelin Trio in perhaps their most accessible mode. Like all the Ganelin Trio albums, it is based on a suite. In this case, the Poco-a-Poco, which in Spanish means step by step, and the trio step through beautiful permutations of bebop, ballads, and classical progressions.

From Strictly For My Friends, here is their first step: Play One:

Here’s one more for the road. Again, from their Strictly For Our Friends album, here is the beautiful Play Seven:

An interesting and ironic thing about The Ganelin Trio is that before Leo Feigin had the chance to record them after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the trio had already disbanded, which makes his recordings even more important documents.

Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in to explore the waters of the pioneering soprano sax musician Steve Lacy.

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Until then, keep on walking….